Hayden Wolf quickly waved his paws to stop the group of terrifying believers: "Don't do anything reckless! I've already told you not to use those self-mutilating blood sacrifice rituals anymore!"
The demi-humans listened to the White Wolf God and immediately put down their bone knives, but they were also somewhat confused: "Great wolf, what should we do now? If our physical bodies are directly afflicted by those curses, the old and young in the tribe will die anyway, so it would be better to sacrifice them first."
Normally, Angela could blow away all this pollution with a single breath, but she is currently busy amplifying the barrier to block the main storm, so she obviously can't spare any action.
So Hayden scratched at the lawn with his wolf claws and sighed.
"Leave this to me... no, that's not right."
Don't underestimate other people.
He shook the wolf's head, making up his mind.
"Listen up, everyone! Let's attack together!"
He is not alone.
Angela's words and actions are proof of this.
To fight against the gods of capital, one must never rely on oneself alone.
129: Second Stage
Through the cracks in the barrier, thick fog of pollution and toxins seeped in.
Even if you try to cut it with a knife or punch it, it's pointless. Aside from the completely intangible sympathetic curse, there's probably no more devastating form of attack than polluted smog. Whether it's a knife, a gun, or a shield, it's utterly useless against this corrosive, polluted smog.
So, how about letting the wind blow it away?
That won't work either. A wind blowing in one direction will only disperse the toxic fog. The toxic light will remain, and humans will die as a result. Simply blowing away the fog won't suffice. Whether it's truly chemical substances or a conceptual curse or pollution, if we just sweep the fog away to other places like this, it's highly likely that the fog will pose a threat again.
The practice of dumping toxic and harmful substances in deserted areas as a solution is actually the style of large corporate capitalists.
"Awoooooo—"
So the Hayden wolf howled loudly, stirring up the icy, biting polar winds.
He was already skilled in wind magic, and when he improved this beast-transformation sorcery, Hayden also incorporated the power of the North Wind. In order to properly portray himself as the White Wolf God in front of the demi-humans, he designed his appearance and abilities to be exceptionally imposing.
However, the difference between Hayden's original design specifications and Angela's current enhanced features is as great as the difference between a Pomeranian and a German Shepherd.
Angela's singing and that incredible ritual have connected the entire mountain, the entire city, all life and power. Power overflows, and everyone's power is increasing.
Hayden Wolf was the same. Now he howled, and the echoes reverberated throughout the valley. The earth responded to the beast god's roar, the north wind shook the ground, and the clouds gathered. All the pollution and toxins that leaked in through the gaps in the barrier were frozen by this icy breath that reverberated, not only failing to spread but also unable to continue to spread up the mountain.
Moreover, the ice blocks formed from the black mist underwent further changes. The life force of the earth's veins was infused into those ice blocks, causing them to stand up like living beings, and even ride the wind like fairies, flying to various parts of the mountain to absorb and digest this filth.
In the original theory of elements, ice was originally a product of the combination of wind and water. It possessed the power to soar on the wind like fairies and to cleanse impurities like water.
Even so, the outermost translucent barrier still has many cracks and tears. The black typhoon spun endlessly on the barrier like a grinding wheel. The typhoon and the pollution it brought were simply too much and too great. Unless the cracks and tears in the barrier were repaired, more toxins and pollution would continue to pour in.
So, it's time for the demi-humans to make their appearance.
"O Divine Ancestor! O Divine Ancestor who lives within our flesh and blood! We are you! You are us! Manifest your divine power through our bodies and through our homeland!"
The demi-humans gathered together, shouting loudly around the chief, chanting incantations in unison with a rhythm that sounded like reciting scriptures.
Hayden forbids them from continuing to perform spells through self-harm or suicide, so how are they supposed to perform spells?
Having been accustomed to blood sacrifices in the past, it is obviously not easy for the demi-humans to suddenly use new magic, especially at a critical moment.
In fact, Hayden had never taught them any new magic. He had been exhausted for the past two weeks just teaching them basic social norms of demi-humans and the dangers of cannibalism and self-harm.
This time, in this respect, it was Karen who prepared something new in advance.
After chanting the incantation, these demi-humans did not harm or commit suicide. Instead, they worked together as a tribe to construct a spell. Each person simultaneously took out a glass bottle, uncorked it, drank two mouthfuls from the contents, and then poured the rest directly onto the ground at their feet.
Those things were all red wine!
Using red wine as a magical substitute for blood is one of the more common secret formulas used by the giant corporation Mars Industries. Large corporations naturally steal information and formulas from each other, so Kallen, whose father is the Peacock King and mother is the goddess Hela, has overheard many of the less-than-secret techniques used by large corporations.
Even secrets are classified into different levels. Commonly used secret techniques don't actually have a very high level of secrecy.
Strangely enough, although using red wine to replace blood should have been just a temporary measure, the wine, after being drunk by the demi-humans and then splashed on the mountain, produced an explosive and miraculous effect. Clusters of red light emerged from the earth, swaying slowly, constantly stretching and expanding, flowing downwards like a blood-red river, all the way from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain.
Just as the red wine river reached the foot of the mountain and encountered pollution seeping in from outside, the most incredible sight appeared.
The pollution that seeped into the mountains drank the wine.
Then, it turned into a gorilla.
A black ape beast god, with flesh and blood, skin and fur, and as tall as a skyscraper.
Unlike its puppet-like, lifeless appearance when the chief summoned it last time, this gorilla looked more like a living creature. In the blink of an eye, the giant gorilla, hiccuping, began to drink more wine while simultaneously smearing the flowing red wine onto the cracks in the barrier. Strangely enough, as the gorilla calmly smeared the red wine on the barrier, the cracks and damage disappeared completely.
"Alas."
Looking at the giant ape-like beast god summoned by the demi-people using red wine and mountains as a medium, and the cold breath he released in response to the power of the mountain city, Hayden felt both surprised and speechless.
Who would have thought that Hayden's act of sharing his energy with this newly built mountain city would result in the city returning even more and stronger energy? Moreover, this energy was far more powerful than he had imagined, instantly freezing and activating all the pollution and toxins that had spread across the entire mountain, and purifying the environmental pollution like a fairy.
That might not be surprising enough, but what the demi-human tribe did was absolutely incomprehensible. Instead of self-harm or suicide, they used red wine to construct magic in place of flesh and blood. Although each demi-human's individual power was merely a degraded version of their great gorilla god-ancestor, now hundreds of demi-humans had concocted unprecedented and astonishing magic together, enough to leave Hayden speechless.
Especially that gorilla, sipping red wine while casually wiping the barrier and repairing the cracks—what the hell is that?! How can the cracks in the barrier be repaired like that?!
Hayden couldn't come up with a single possible explanation.
For ten years, or perhaps more, Hayden had been plagued by his own lack of power, far inferior to those of the wealthy or capitalists. Therefore, he searched everywhere for ways to gain energy, exploit the old gods, or steal resources from the new gods, all in an effort to improve his own limits—but such underhanded methods ultimately had their limits. Before meeting Angela, Hayden was already a top-tier mortal, yet he could not advance any further.
Unexpectedly, Hayden is now facing this deadly crisis. Following Angela's ritual and methods, he gives away his witchcraft and energy to the "city," and in return, he gains even greater power to fight against the giant vacuum cleaner typhoon of the large corporation.
This is truly bizarre and utterly inexplicable. Everyone contributes 100 yuan, and without doing anything, they receive 200 yuan back. This is the kind of tactic used in Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes, where money is used to pay off other debts. Without any production or obtaining more from elsewhere, no real "resource" can magically increase in quantity.
This is utterly illogical. In such a closed loop, no one suffers any loss, so how can one person's benefit also benefit another? This completely violates the most basic laws of magic and physics. Because normally, whether you eat, burn firewood, or draw energy from spiritual veins, whatever method you use to replenish your energy, it must come from somewhere else.
However, Angela managed to conjure up this strange cycle. Everyone contributes energy into this shared cycle, and after each cycle, even more energy is automatically returned. The more people participate in this cycle, the more energy and dedication they willingly give, the more they receive in return.
I am for everyone, and everyone is for me.
Hayden didn't believe anyone else could do the same. He was busy dealing with the contamination and didn't have time to think about it, but he vaguely realized that this might be the most terrifying power Angela had ever shown.
This is the power to stand head-on against the dark typhoon of a large corporation, if you stack a hundred primitive barbarians and a mine together, plus an incalculable number of dream flowers and a Hayden.
This is indeed a force that defies common sense.
Pollution and toxins that seep into the barrier will be purified by Hayden's expelled ice and snow.
Any damage to the barrier will be quickly repaired by the gorilla, who will apply alcohol to it.
Angela, as the core of the cycle, will provide endless support to the participants.
Conversely, the Typhoon vacuum cleaner, powered by next-generation energy sources, has an astonishing amount of energy.
The situation quickly reached a stalemate.
The colossal dark typhoon, like a robot vacuum cleaner stuck after hitting an obstacle, kept rubbing against the city barrier summoned by Angela.
————————————————————————————
About five minutes later, in the control room of the New Yatu Mitra Group branch building, an operator finally noticed that something seemed wrong with the Typhoon vacuum cleaner.
"Mr. Adam."
The operator turned to call their project manager. They called Adam "Mr. Adam" because he had married into his wife's family and changed his surname. If they always called him by his surname within the department, they might confuse him with Dhritarashtra and his sons. Over time, and given Adam's generally "amiable" demeanor among his subordinates, they got used to calling him "Mr. Adam."
“Mr. Adam, the cleaning device seems to be stuck in area Y-7.”
The operator looked at the satellite map, where the massive, dark typhoon seemed stuck in place, and said with some confusion,
"It seems to have crashed into some kind of city barrier and is rubbing against it."
Adam, who is both the son-in-law of Dhritarashtra and the project manager for this collaboration, immediately leaned over, looked at the map, but couldn't make out anything particularly obvious.
Hayden had prepared a barrier to shield the gods' gaze beforehand, and this barrier was also reinforced by the cycle provided by Angela, which is one of the reasons.
However, on the other hand, anything that can be obscured by magic can be seen through with stronger magic. The reason the Mitra Group didn't use stronger magic to see what was happening here was because this massive dark typhoon, shrouded in countless contaminants and curses, was inherently extremely chaotic. Trying to discern what was happening within it would require far too much effort.
So Adam stared at the surveillance footage from the Magic Eye satellite, looking left and right, but could only vaguely see the Typhoon Vacuum Cleaner tearing at a dark red city barrier, and couldn't make out any details.
But things that the eyes can't see clearly can be thought about with the mind.
“All properly registered towns have climate control systems that automatically avoid typhoons. This city's boundary is clearly illegal, however…”
Adam then suddenly changed the subject.
"I heard the other day that the daughter of the HR director, Peacock King, set up a recycling center over there. This city barrier should also be her creation."
Although the process was slightly off, the answer is indeed correct.
The operator was taken aback when he heard the words "daughter of the Peacock King" and quickly asked, "So, should we just let the typhoon bypass this place?"
Even if the Peacock King's daughter had prepared a barrier on this mountain beforehand, she couldn't possibly supply the barrier with an endless supply of energy. In contrast, the Typhoon Sweeper, which uses next-generation energy, has virtually inexhaustible energy. If this continues, the sweeper will definitely break through the barrier and sweep the entire mountain away.
But wouldn't that be slapping the face of the Peacock King? That's not a good idea, is it?
"unnecessary."
However, Adam said this.
"Since this mountain didn't get proper registration beforehand, it means this was just a dirty trick played by the daughter of the Peacock King in private, and it's not something that can be brought into the open. It's only reasonable for us to sweep it away."
The operator was speechless.
"The first phase of field testing is complete. It's actually good that the mountain stopped the storm. We're ready to move on to the second phase."
Adam looked up and gave orders to all the operators in the room.
"Switch from mobile sweep mode to diffuse sweep mode. There's no need to move the storm anymore; just expand its reach to cover the entire state."
The operators obeyed the order and began working.
Does such a powerful sweeping robot really need to be manually controlled? Why bother?
Wouldn't it be better and easier to just let it stay in one fixed position and let the storm's impact spread naturally throughout the state, and then adjust the route around legal places and things based on the whitelist?
As for those things that aren't on the whitelist but are still lingering in the wilderness—they're obviously illegal and have no rights whatsoever. Just sweep them away.
"The new energy provided by the [Kowtowing Bug] system is still not very stable in terms of power, and it can actually be blocked by this small city barrier."
Adam stared at the large screen in the control room, muttering to himself.
"However, cleaning is not something that can be done in a day. Two more weeks of cleaning should be enough. It can also serve as a durability test for the [Kowtow Beetle]. If the Peacock King really wants to help his daughter get the license and registration, he can get it in this time."
The operator, being just a junior employee, had no desire to get involved in the office politics of the higher-ups and quickly complied.
So neither he nor Adam noticed that another operator in the next seat had overheard their conversation and was preparing to sell the information to Karen later.
In fact, Adam never intended to hide it. There was no need to hide it at all. Since the "Knocking Beetle" system had already been officially launched for field testing of the climate control system, secrecy was impossible to maintain for long.
He wanted Karen to find out about this.
Their plan will soon enter its second phase.
130: The state has set fires for three days as per custom.
It's very easy to be moved and inspired by a fleeting miracle.
However, when the continuous struggle becomes a prolonged torment, an annoying routine, and a source of pain and anger, maintaining enthusiasm to deal with it every hour and every day becomes a true test.
Hayden is facing such a test.
Because the super-giant black typhoon sweeper has been parked outside the mountain city's barrier for ten consecutive days.
For ten days, the typhoon's sweeping force has remained stationary outside the mountain city's protective barrier, endlessly rubbing against the barrier while expanding outwards. The eye of the storm remains unchanged, yet the storm's influence expands dramatically each day. The radius of the sweeping storm is growing larger and larger.
Throughout Evergreen, safe places are becoming increasingly scarce. Aside from the capital, New Jersey, only registered towns and highways remain safe. Although the sweeping storm is gradually spreading throughout Evergreen, it seems to deliberately avoid these whitelisted areas.
Who decides what will be swept away and what will remain?
Of course, only the gods (capital) can do it.
The storm doesn't need rest. With the company switching it to automatic diffusion mode, operators no longer need to manually move it around; full automation suffices. Operators simply need to work in shifts, focusing on adjusting the energy output of the "Hitchhiker" system, controlling the load, and overseeing various maintenance and tests of the energy system.
Conversely, Hayden and the other people did not have it so easy.
The sweeping storm has been rubbing against the outside of the barrier for ten days. It has been gathering strength and is extremely resilient, covering the sky and earth, and is unstoppable.
So Hayden hasn't had a proper rest for ten days.
He really didn't get any rest.
"I sing of the blood that surges across the earth,"
"And those brave warriors who shed their blood;"